Overtime – Episode #675: David Hogg, Mark Cuban, Joe Scarborough

Summary

Real Time with Bill Maher - Episode #675: David Hogg, Mark Cuban, Joe Scarborough

Release Date: October 22, 2024
Host: Bill Maher
Guests: David Hogg, Mark Cuban, Joe Scarborough, Scott Galloway

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Introduction

In Episode #675 of HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher," host Bill Maher engages in a robust discussion with a distinguished panel comprising David Hogg, Mark Cuban, Joe Scarborough, and Scott Galloway. The conversation delves into pressing societal issues, including the pharmaceutical industry's challenges, the impact of cryptocurrency on political betting, perceptions of Russian interference in U.S. elections, the Democratic Party's relationship with young men, and the media's portrayal of Donald Trump.

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Pharmaceutical Industry Challenges and Walgreens Store Closures

The episode opens with Joe Scarborough addressing the recent news of Walgreens closing 1,200 stores, sparking a conversation about the pharmaceutical industry's evolving landscape. Mark Cuban provides insight into the systemic issues plaguing pharmacies, particularly the role of Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs).

Key Points:

• Impact of PBMs: PBMs negotiate drug prices on behalf of insurers, often leading to lower reimbursement rates for pharmacies.
• Threat to Smaller Pharmacies: The squeeze on margins is causing smaller, independent pharmacies to struggle, leading to store closures.
• Transparency in Pricing: David Hogg introduces Cost Plus Drugs, emphasizing the importance of transparency in drug pricing by revealing their cost structures and maintaining a modest 15% markup.

Notable Quote:

"If you think it's bad for Walgreens, they make it so smaller pharmacies don't even get fully reimbursed when they fill a prescription." – Mark Cuban [01:39]

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Cryptocurrency Betting on Elections and Foreign Influence

The conversation transitions to the intersection of cryptocurrency and political betting, spotlighting Polymarket—a crypto-based prediction market platform. Bill Maher highlights a Wall Street Journal story about a significant $30 million investment in Polymarket, raising concerns about the integrity of election betting and potential foreign influence.

Key Points:

• Legality and Ethics: Discussion on the legality of betting on U.S. elections for American citizens and the involvement of foreign investors in such platforms.
• Market Manipulation: Exploration of how substantial investments can influence betting odds, potentially skewing perceptions of electoral outcomes.
• Foreign Participation: Concerns that these markets may be dominated by non-U.S. investors, undermining the platform's credibility and possibly the election's integrity.

Notable Quotes:

"It's like betting on the Mets. Put enough money on it, the odds will change." – Bill Maher [03:02]
"Unless you get a hundred percent. Yeah. Other than the small play. Other than the small one, Cash, they just." – Unknown Speaker [03:38]

"So this is like Republicans are excited, say, we don't care about the polls or the only early voting numbers. Look at what the foreigners are saying. And Putin's amazing." – Bill Maher [03:57]

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Russia Collusion: Hoax or Reality?

A heated debate ensues regarding the legitimacy of the Russia collusion narrative. Joe Scarborough asserts that collusion did occur, despite criticisms of the Mueller report's thoroughness, while Bill Maher expresses frustration over media narratives that downplay or dismiss Russian interference.

Key Points:

• Collusion Evidence: Joe Scarborough defends the existence of collusion, arguing that intelligence failures do not negate the occurrence of interference.
• Media Narratives: Evaluation of how mainstream media outlets, including influential publications like the Wall Street Journal, sometimes perpetuate the "Russia hoax" narrative.
• Political Ramifications: Discussion on how beliefs about Russian interference influence public trust in political institutions and leaders.

Notable Quotes:

"There was definitely collusion." – Joe Scarborough [04:17]
"I still read the Wall Street Journal editorial page and the op-eds and it's sort of might go to in the morning and it's maddening to even see people on there talking about Russia hoax." – Bill Maher [04:25]

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Trump's Appeal Among Young Men and the Mental Health Crisis

A substantial portion of the episode addresses the Democratic Party's struggle to engage young men, exploring factors contributing to Donald Trump's enduring support base among this demographic. Scott Galloway and Bill Maher delve into societal stigmas surrounding men's mental health and the implications of perceived collective guilt.

Key Points:

• Stigmatization of Men's Issues: Scott Galloway critiques the Democratic Party for not adequately addressing the mental health crisis among young men, suggesting that efforts often come across as assigning collective guilt.
• Historical Context: Examination of how historical narratives and policies, such as the passage of Title IX, have shifted educational attainment rates between genders.
• Role of Social Media: Discussion on how social media platforms perpetuate unhealthy versions of masculinity by commodifying insecurities through memes and sensationalism.
• Call for Compassion: Emphasis on the need for the Democratic Party to show genuine compassion without alienating young men, fostering a healthier definition of masculinity.

Notable Quotes:

"We have to end this taboo or else it's going to mean it's going to be detrimental to the future of the Democratic Party." – Scott Galloway [06:07]
"If you push young men into the corner, they will come out Trump supporters." – Bill Maher [07:38]
"The enemy is not masculinity itself. It's an unhealthy version, commodifying masculinity." – Scott Galloway [09:55]

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Media's Coverage of Donald Trump

In the closing segment, the panel discusses the media's approach to covering Donald Trump, particularly whether standards are applied equitably compared to other political figures. The consensus reflects skepticism about the media's ability to maintain impartiality.

Key Points:

• Double Standards: Critique of media outlets for potentially holding Trump to different standards than other candidates, affecting public perception.
• Accountability: The importance of holding all political figures accountable, regardless of their position or popularity.
• Media Influence: Exploration of how media narratives shape political landscapes and voter opinions.

Notable Quote:

"No." – Bill Maher [12:12]

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Lighthearted Moments: Favorite Albums

Amidst the serious discussions, Bill Maher shares a personal touch by revealing his favorite music album, highlighting The Beatles' "White Album" as his preferred choice. This segment adds a relatable and humanizing element to the episode.

Notable Quote:

"It's pretty boring, but it is what it is." – Bill Maher [11:28]

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Conclusion

Episode #675 of "Real Time with Bill Maher" offers a comprehensive exploration of significant societal and political issues through the lens of experienced and passionate panelists. From the intricacies of the pharmaceutical industry and the complexities of cryptocurrency in politics to the nuanced challenges of engaging young men and the media's portrayal of political figures, the episode provides insightful commentary and diverse perspectives. Bill Maher's ability to steer the conversation towards both depth and relatability ensures a rich and engaging listening experience for the audience.

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Notable Quotes Summary:

• Mark Cuban:

  "If you think it's bad for Walgreens, they make it so smaller pharmacies don't even get fully reimbursed when they fill a prescription." [01:39]

• Bill Maher:

  "It's like betting on the Mets. Put enough money on it, the odds will change." [03:02]
  "So this is like Republicans are excited, say, we don't care about the polls or the only early voting numbers. Look at what the foreigners are saying. And Putin's amazing." [03:57]
  "No." [12:12]

• Joe Scarborough:

  "There was definitely collusion." [04:17]

• Scott Galloway:

  "We have to end this taboo or else it's going to mean it's going to be detrimental to the future of the Democratic Party." [06:07]
  "The enemy is not masculinity itself. It's an unhealthy version, commodifying masculinity." [09:55]

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This detailed summary encapsulates the core discussions, insights, and conclusions drawn during the episode, providing a comprehensive overview for those who haven't listened to the podcast.

Transcript

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[Mark Cuban]

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[David Hogg]

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[Mark Cuban]

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[Scott Galloway]

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[Mark Cuban]

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[David Hogg]

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[Ryan Reynolds]

$45 upfront payment equivalent to $15 per month. New customers on first three month plan only taxes and fees. Extra speed slower above 40 gigabytes. You detail. Welcome to an HBO podcast from the HBO late night series Real Time with Bill Maher.

[Joe Scarborough]

All right, here we are. We'll be co founded marks for our lives and the leaders we deserve. Packed. David Hogg. He co hosts MSNBC's Morning Joe Joe Scarborough. He's a shark on ABC's Shark Tank and co founder of Posh Plus Drugs Mark Cuban. And the first question is for you, Mark Cuban. What does the news that Walgreens is closing 1,200 stores meanwhile about the pharmaceutical industry. Will more people opt out of getting their prescription drugs from traditional pharmacies? This is what you're very much into.

[Unknown Speaker]

And it's bad news. There's these things called pharmacy benefit managers that basically interject themselves and set the pricing for medications and they make it so particularly in smaller pharmacies. If you think it's bad for Walgreens, they make it so smaller pharmacies don't even get fully reimbursed when they fill a prescription. So you're seeing not just Walgreens but a lot of small pharmacies go out of business and that's a real problem.

[Joe Scarborough]

Wow. And your organization, your main goal is just to get the price of drugs down for the people in.

[Unknown Speaker]

We weren't just going to turn it upside down because we brought in transparency. So we're the first place where you go to Cost Plus Drugs and we'll show you our cost, our 15% markup and the actual price that you'll pay. Nobody else does that.

[Joe Scarborough]

Panel. What does the panel think of people betting on the Election. Wow. I never even thought of that. Then I guess people, of course batters are going to bet on anything.

[Bill Maher]

Well, I mean, there was. There was a Wall Street Journal story today about how somebody had thrown like $30 million into the crypto site called Polymarket.

[Joe Scarborough]

That's what.

[Unknown Speaker]

I'm an investor through a fund. So let me say that up front. I'm honest.

[Joe Scarborough]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

Do you know, is it a cricketer right now? Because, I mean, that was a story day in the Wall Street Journal that somebody's actually dumping.

[Unknown Speaker]

It's like betting on the. On the Mets. Right. Put enough money on it, the odds will change. But you can't be a U.S. citizen and bet on the U.S. election on polymarket. There's other smaller markets, Kashki, I think it's called, where you can. So it's not really an indication of anything.

[Scott Galloway]

Well, I think the irony of all of it is a lot of these Republicans are buying it, thinking that that's going to determine the outcome of the election, and they're just gaslighting themselves.

[Joe Scarborough]

Is that right?

[Scott Galloway]

I guess I was looking at it when Tim Walsh was up as well, when it was the VP stakes, and you could see it change right before.

[Bill Maher]

Wait, are you saying that those are all foreigners?

[Unknown Speaker]

Unless you get a hundred percent.

[Bill Maher]

Really?

[Unknown Speaker]

Yeah. Other than the small play. Other than the small one, Cash, they just.

[Bill Maher]

No, but on Polymarket.

[Unknown Speaker]

On Polymarket, yeah.

[Bill Maher]

That's all foreigners.

[Unknown Speaker]

All foreigners.

[Joe Scarborough]

Whoa.

[Bill Maher]

So this is. This is like Republicans are excited, say, we don't care about the polls or the only early voting numbers. Look at what the foreigners are saying. And Putin's amazing.

[Unknown Speaker]

Putin's on his phone going, oh, it's good.

[Bill Maher]

It's crazy.

[Joe Scarborough]

Well, I mean, they, you know, they influence our elections in many ways.

[Bill Maher]

They certainly do.

[Joe Scarborough]

I mean, I kind of alluded to it in the show, but I think the biggest hoax going is the idea that the Russia collusion was not a. Was a hoax. It's not a hoax.

[Unknown Speaker]

It's not.

[Joe Scarborough]

There was collusion just because Bob Mueller was bad at proving it. There was definitely collusion.

[Bill Maher]

That's one of the more maddening things. I still read the Wall Street Journal editorial page and the op eds and it's sort of might go to in the morning and it's maddening to even see people on there talking about Russia hoax. And you just want to say, read the Mueller report. Read everything that's happened. Ask yourself why, time and time again, Donald Trump's doing things that make no sense. Why does he say In Helsinki in 2018, regarding Russia, I trust Vladimir Putin more than my own intel agencies. Why? As I always tell my kids, if something doesn't make sense, there's a good reason it doesn't make sense.

[Joe Scarborough]

And it's more dangerous than even that because they use it as a jumping off point. Like, well, since Russia was a hoax then, and it's like, but Russia wasn't a hoax. But once you get them to believe that Russia was a hoax now, anything goes.

[Bill Maher]

But there's such tribalism. There actually was a Vanderbilt survey, a poll, and they said, who's a better president? Vladimir Putin? And they ask this of self identified MAGA voters, who's a better president, Vladimir Putin or Joe Biden? Putin, 54%. Biden, 18%. Those are Americans. Yeah, those are the Republicans. My old party, the party of Reagan, the ones that said, tear down that wall and push back against Russian expansion. Now they're all in on Putin, they're all in on Russia. It's bizar.

[Joe Scarborough]

Okay, what explains why Trump is doing so well among young men? Well, we have one here. We have one.

[Scott Galloway]

I think it's a sample size of 1. For too long. For too long, I think the Democratic Party has had this idea that compassion is kind of a zero sum game where somehow, if we are talking about the need, the fact that we have a mental health crisis among young men in this country right now, if we're talking about the real needs that young men face, that somehow it's to the detriment of other people, obviously mainly women. And I just don't think that way. I think that we can care about everybody. And I think for too long, for too long, there's been a stigma, there's been a stigma around talking about helping, you know, those people because obviously for thousands of years talking about men was to the exclusion of women. And I understand the fear around that. But we have to end this taboo or else it's going to mean it's going to be detrimental to the future of the Democratic Party because we have to have, you know, both men and women.

[Bill Maher]

It really is. I've got to say one other thing too. I told one of my, one of my kids, I've got four kids and one of my kids kind of progressive. I said, when they went off to school, I said, don't make sure you don't push the young men into the corner. You go into a pretty liberal place. I also said this to the head of school there. I said, here's the deal. You tell young men that they are suspects because they are Young men because of the sins of men over thousands like this. Collective guilt. You push them into the corner, they will come out Trump supporters.

[Joe Scarborough]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

And I will tell you, I have one Democrat after another Democrat that's never voted for a Republican before, unlike me, that have said their boys again. This was back 20, 16, 17, 18, 19, they would send their seven year old boys to school. Their seven year old boys would come back with these horror stories about teachers having the boys stand up, the teachers pushing those boys basically into the corner. Collective guilt for thousands of years of way that men fuck up racially too. Yeah. And what happens when you push somebody into the corner? Andrew Sullivan wrote about this. Push a conservative into the corner or you push a boy into the corner, they come out more radicalized. They come out in this case supporting Donald Trump. And that's happened to young men, too many of them.

[Scott Galloway]

I think it's a delicate balance because we need to acknowledge that although young men like myself and others, we don't, we are not responsible for the creation of that environment in the first place. We also need to understand the history of that and recognize that we have a responsibility as men.

[Unknown Speaker]

Do you think social media plays a part, just the reinforcement of memes over and over eight hours a day?

[Scott Galloway]

I think social media plays a part of it. I think the commodification of hatred on social media in particular, because everything's a meme.

[Unknown Speaker]

Everything's a meme.

[Scott Galloway]

Especially since COVID Right. We know for a fact since the passage of Title ix, for example, that young men used to get bachelor's degrees at a rate 15% higher than women. Now that rate has flipped where women are getting 50 bachelor's degrees at a rate 15% higher than men. That's not necessarily a bad thing. It just means that our education system needs to, you know, we need to look at the structuring of it and realize that for young boys in particular, they're actually developmentally behind women a lot of the time, as anybody who's had.

[Joe Scarborough]

They need affirmative action, men need help.

[Bill Maher]

Scott Galloway is so good on this issue. And you're right, there needs to be compassion. There needs to be an understanding of what has happened over the past thousand or two thousand years or whatever. You have to have compassion. But at the same time, you don't assign collective guilt to young men, to young boys. And if you do, there are consequences.

[Scott Galloway]

And we need to understand too that the enemy is not masculinity itself.

[Bill Maher]

Right.

[Scott Galloway]

It's an unhealthy version, commodifying masculinity where they basically take what the Internet's hap. The role that the Internet plays here a lot of the time is it feeds on young men's insecurities and sells them. The solution to that insecurity, whether that's a gun, whether that's something else that helps to perpetuate that insecurity more and says, here's your answer. Purchase this product. And it's so sinister because it actually makes those men weaker by doing. What we need to do is realize we need a healthy version. We need a healthy version of what masculinity really looks.

[Bill Maher]

Right.

[Joe Scarborough]

It looks like this.

[Bill Maher]

If I can quote Scott Galloway one more time, and I think I heard him say this on your show. For my parents, the definition of masculinity was you worked hard, you played by the rules, and you took care of other people. You took care of people around you. You took care of your children. You took care of your loved ones.

[Joe Scarborough]

You took. And you didn't complain and whine. Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

About everything.

[Joe Scarborough]

And always be talking about how everything is so unfair and you got a bad deal. It's so unmasculine.

[Bill Maher]

Right.

[Joe Scarborough]

Suck it up. Suck it up.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah.

[Joe Scarborough]

Suck your terrible life that he's holding. Okay, this is an important question. It's for Joe. What is your favorite album? We don't usually get questions like this, but I guess this is what songs from the past have stood the test of time as music today is politically as important as it was in the 60s. I guess this is because you're a musician yourself.

[Bill Maher]

I'm just such a huge Beatles fan. It always goes between Abbey Road and the White Album, and it's probably Abbey Road, but sort of the Desert island album I would take would be the White Album. So there you go. It's pretty boring, but it is what it is.

[Unknown Speaker]

Do you know what the White Album is?

[Bill Maher]

Do you have the idea?

[Scott Galloway]

I'm sure. I'm sure I've heard it.

[Bill Maher]

A dagger in my heart A dagger in my heart. So there was this group. They were called the Beatles. Yeah.

[Joe Scarborough]

Okay.

[Bill Maher]

Pretty good.

[Joe Scarborough]

All right, dad. All right, final question. Has the media ever really figured out how to cover Trump without holding him to a lower standard than the other candidates?

[Bill Maher]

No.

[Joe Scarborough]

No. Thank you very much.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Catch all new episodes of Real Time with Bill Maher every Friday night at 10 or watch him anytime on HBO on Demand. For more information, log on to hbo.com.

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[Joe Scarborough]

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